If what you're asking for is the ability - as an NT user - to view a PDF that is stored in a file on a Unix machine, there's no Java or other programming required. If the Unix machine is part of a LAN to which your NT machine is also attached, these days it's likely to have Samba or a similar Windows-compatible networking product installed. If so, you should be able to access the LAN shares, and treat the PDF in the same way you would an NT server-based PDF. All that's needed is for the file to be residing in a shared area, just like it would be on an NT server. For non-LAN access, such as the Internet, you can download a copy of the PDF if the Unix machine has a webserver such as Apache installer. In that case, all that's required is to ensure that the MIME type support for the server is set to understand PDFs and that the PDF be placed in a location where it can be server. Plus, of course, you have to know that location's URL. If you planned to read and manipulate a PDF programmatically, that's quite different, but in Java the code is essentially the same for any OS, whether NT, Unix or Macintosh.